Plastic-Free Sequins Made From Plants

On this week’s news update…

Virus-Fighting Game

A virus-fighting video game…

Inflatable

A shape-shifting inflatable robot…

Sequins From Plants

And sequins made from plants, instead of plastic!

First up…

Imagine if people could help scientists fight the new coronavirus by playing a video game.

Well guess what—they can!

Scientists have developed a game called Foldit that allows anyone to help develop medicines to treat Covid-19.

Foldit

FoldIt players solve puzzles to design different kinds of proteins.

proteins

There’s a chance that some of these proteins could be developed into medicines that block the coronavirus, so it can’t infect the human body and cause Covid-19.

Researchers take the most promising protein designs and test them in the laboratory.

By getting lots of people to help design new proteins, games like FoldIt could speed up scientific research and get us closer to a treatment for Covid-19.

Next up…

What happens if you cross a robot with a balloon animal?

You get this—an inflatable robot developed by researchers in California!

It’s made from long, fabric tubes that are filled with air and rollers that are driven by motors.

When a roller moves along a tube, it changes the angle the tube is bent at.

When lots of tubes are joined together, this allows the robot to move and grab hold of objects!

The robot is still at an early stage but the researchers behind it think it could one day be packed into a spacecraft and sent to explore other planets!

And finally…

Sequins are fun, fabulous, and fantastically bad for the environment!

Most sequins are made of plastic, which makes them difficult to recycle, and if they end up in nature, animals can mistake them for food.

So designer Elissa Brunato decided to find a way to make sequins from natural materials.

Elissa Brunato, Designer

Her sequins are made from cellulose—a substance found in plants, including trees.

cellulose

Cellulose is strong and light, like plastic, but unlike plastic, it can be composted, so it shouldn’t end up polluting the ocean.

And because it comes from trees, it’s a renewable resource, which means that—as long as new trees are planted to replace the ones that are cut down—it will never run out.

So, these sequins show that fabulous fashion can also be environmentally-friendly!

That’s all for this week. We’ll see you next time.